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Delaware, United States
Deborah Hawkins, penned Debra Renée Byrd, began writing after a blank book project in elementary school and never stopped, fashioning stories based on her favorite TV shows and movies before creating more original works. She studied at the University of the Arts and Florida State University before settling down and graduating from Temple University. She now resides in her hometown of Dover, DE, where she spends most of her time at work or at church. She loves fantasies, superheroes, is a trekkie and a brown coat. She loves television and lives for Final Fantasy video games, having collected most of them. She has read a myriad of authors, and her favorite authors change whenever she finds a new book that changes her life... "When you can't run, you crawl. When you can't crawl...well, you know the rest." -Tracey, Firefly, "The Message"

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Monday, October 7, 2013

Express Yourself: First Lines

Happy Tuesday (technically)! It's time for another Express Yourself question!


A big thanks for Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests for bringing this meme to the blogosphere. This week, they ask us to share some of our favorite first lines.

The first I want to share is actually the chapter title, which reminds me of a Friends episode title. lol (Also, if you ever want to know why the Friends episode titles are so plain, I actually know the answer!) This is the title to the first chapter of Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys:

Chapter One Which is Mostly About Names and Family Relationships.

It's so cynical to me, and it's kind of Fat Charlie's attitude through the story, especially since his dad embarrassed him his entire life.

Another is from Vanessa Diffenbaugh's The Language of Flowers, and if you haven't read this book, dear God, do!

For eight years I dreamed of fire.Trees ignited as I passed them; oceans burned.

First off, awesome imagery. Secondly, the TURMOIL! Clearly there's something behind that, and what a ride to learn what it is! Wonderful.

I've read like a million books, and I was sleepy an hour ago, so I'll do one more. Christopher Pike began my love for young adult horror which I never followed up on in writing. lol Matter of fact, I'm pretty sure he just wrote YA paranormal, but I didn't know the difference when I was a kid. But Remember Me was one of the first books of his I read, and with openings like this, it wasn't the last.

Most people would probably call me a ghost. I am, after all, dead.

Thanks for stopping by. What are some of your favorite first lines?

8 comments:

Heather R. Holden said...

I haven't read any of these books, but wow, great first lines! Vanessa Diffenbaugh's is especially evocative...

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

The only one I can think of this early in the morning is the first line from A Christmas Carol - Marley was dead, to begin with.

Claudia H. Blanton said...

great first lines! Glad I ran into your blog - this is my first time participating in the "Express Yourself" postings - have a great day!

SC Author said...

Awesome lines!

Unknown said...

Great lines!

Anonymous said...

Oh, God, how I love that book/play/movies lol

Anonymous said...

That book is so awesome.

Jackie said...

Nice choices here! That last one makes me want to read that book right now! :)